NEW YORK — Todd Frazier doesn’t want to take anything away from Sean Newcomb, the Atlanta Braves’ right-hander who blanked the Mets over seven innings on Wednesday night at Citi Field. But Frazier is questioning some of the calls that home plate umpire Lance Barrett gave to Newcomb.
Frazier, who went 0-for-4 with a strikeout on Wednesday, isn’t just directing his ire at Barrett. He’s upset with several umpires throughout the league, for what he’s calling a lack of “accountability” with their strike zone.
“He got ahead, he got ahead quick. He was working his fastball really well. He was getting some calls that could have gone either way,” Frazier said after the Mets’ 7-0 loss. “I think right now, the frustrating thing is those kind of calls that he’s getting aren’t really strikes. But credit him, he pitched a heck a of a game. But I’m starting to get frustrated with these umpires a little bit. I have to say something.”
If you’ve ever met Frazier, a Toms River, N.J. native and a Rutgers product, you know that he’s always got a lot to say. Right now, he’s not afraid to say it even if it means ruffling some feathers around the league. And that’s because the third baseman insists he’s not the only hitter in the league who sees inconsistencies in the calling of balls and strikes. Far from it.
Frazier was so frustrated over the weekend that he sat down and had a meeting with an umpire in San Diego. He declined to name the umpire, though Marty Foster and Doug Eddings were behind the plate for the first two games of the series, respectively. Frazier did say it went well and he respected the umpire for sitting down with him to hear him out.
“They’re saying, ’These aren’t balls,’ or ‘These aren’t strikes.’ But we get the review, too,” Frazier said. “I had one game where a guy missed five calls on me. In one game. Next thing you know, he says he didn’t. It’s one of those things where they’ve got to get better. We’ve got to hit, too, as well, but we don’t want to be put in a hole every day of the week.”
Frazier was quick to point out that Newcomb pitched well and the Mets lost “fair and square,” but he also planned to get information for himself from the Mets’ in-house scouts. According to Frazier, the 90-93 percent of pitches on the plate are called as strikes. He said he’s seeing numbers far lower than that.
“I get my reports from the smarter guys above me,” he joked.
Meeting with the umpire in San Diego was the first step, but Frazier is ready to take it a step further and meet with either MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred or someone else at the league to discuss the inconsistencies he and other hitters are seeing at the plate.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I’d like to sit down with Manfred, or anybody at MLB, because it’s rubbing everybody the wrong way — everybody around the league. It’s been going on for years. But for me, this year specifically, it’s been going on a lot more.”
